Caroline H. Thon | I lyset af, I skyggen af

In the exhibition I lyset af, I skyggen af (English: In the light of, In the shadow of), visual artist Caroline H. Thon examines the influence of light and shadow on how we perceive the world. The exhibition consists of a series of paintings whose motifs center around the meeting between the shadows of a tree and a person. The shadows are seen from different perspectives and under the light of different seasons. The paintings alternate between being light, almost photographic, renderings of a park-like space to more abstract flickering light patterns. They are painted on semi-transparent linen, in several layers, which creates moiré patterns and an almost hypnotic shimmer in the paintings.

Thon has developed this special combination of painting and spatial transparency based on a desire to convey existential experiences associated with changes in the homeostasis of the nervous system.
She describes: ”With this exhibition, I have explored how I can, through painting, convey experiences that seem difficult to explain in words. I wanted to open up the painting to be able to contain several dimensions and a form of life and movement that reflects how every experience contains several layers and can be changed based on how it is illuminated.”

The exhibition is based on Thon’s personal experiences, but the artist’s thoughts and ideas about perception and embodiment are universal. Our physicality is the basis for how we recognize, materialize and connect with the world, and the exhibition therefore revolves around the very experience of being human: ”I have been interested in how being in a changed sensory state, where normal bodily rhythms and filters are put out of play, can create other encounters or ’interference patterns’ with the surroundings. How in the midst of the uncomfortable ’chaos’ or darkness, crevices of light, sensitivity and openness can be found that enables new connections with the non-human.”

The exhibition’s examination of light and shadow thus connects with other dualistic concepts such as man and nature, desperation and hope, science and faith, life and death, and dissolves the clear boundaries between such concepts.

Caroline H. Thon is a Danish visual artist whose primary medium is oil painting. Thon’s practice is rooted in a curiosity about the relationship between our body, consciousness and nature. She also works with monumental painting and has made several public murals in both Denmark and Chile as well as in various schools and in the prison Paris la Santé. She has exhibited in Shanghai, Berlin, Limassol and Leipzig as well as Aalborg and Copenhagen. Alongside her artistic practice, Thon holds a master’s degree in biology and art history and has previously worked with research, production and curation in museums. Thon has, among other things, helped to create the award-winning exhibition Mind the Gut at Medicinsk Museion in 2017 and most recently co-created the exhibition Grønne Drømme in Odense in 2023.